One Step Beyond (24bt) [Import]

Jackie McLean | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 23, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Toshiba EMI Japan
• ASIN: B000BDJ5TI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #956,225 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Saturday & Sunday

2. Frankenstein

3. Blue Rondo

4. Ghost Town

Editorial Reviews

This 1963 album was an exciting, innovative fencemender that drew together the warring factions of the hard boppers versus the avant gardists. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's roots reached back into the Forties where he learned from Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. On this album, he wedded swing with freer musical expression, and introduced four giants to the jazz world: trombonist/composer Grachan Moncur III, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Eddie Khan, and drummer Tony Williams, who at 17 years of age was a month from joining the Miles Davis Quintet. The music remains fresh and exhilarating to this day driven by a youngster's masterful, innovative approach to the drums. An alternate take is added to the original album for this Rudy Van Gelder remaster. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A creative session, September 26, 2002

By 

nadav haber (jerusalem Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Step Beyond (Audio CD)

This cd is one of several cd's by Jackie Mclean from the mid 60's, where he experienced with modern forms, that do not rely on chords but on different modes. This difference led to new forms, as the new approach did not fit the traditional way of playing "choruses" (improvising over a set of chords for 12, 16 or 32 bars).
To me, Mclean did not feel comfortable in this new form as he did in bebop or hard bop. His sound is as great as ever, but I hear in his lines an uncertainty of direction.
The other musicians, Grachan Moncur on trombone, Eddie Kahn on bass and Tony Williams on drums, are at the top of their game. Williams is just so great at these open structures, and Moncur reminds me here of his playing on his own album - "evolution".
This is a mind opener CD, but it is not as great as Out To Lunch, Miles Smiles, Firebirds, or Evolution. Still, any serious collection of 60's jazz should have it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jackie Mac's Best Back from the Great "Beyond", February 12, 2009

By 

Michael B. Richman (Portland, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Step Beyond (Audio CD)

Legendary alto saxophonist Jackie McLean made dozens of records for Blue Note, and in my opinion "One Step Beyond" is his most adventurous effort and overall best album. And, it was until now, arguably the single best Blue Note date in the catalog NOT to have been remastered in the RVG series! First released on CD in the late 1980s, the original "One Step Beyond" had a major tracking defect that caused track 2 to begin in the middle of the song. It was quickly remaindered, and never fixed until a few years ago with the issue of Grachan Moncur's Mosaic Select set. Now Rudy Van Gelder has been given the opportunity to strengthen the sound (and hopefully fix the problem) on one of the clear Blue Note masterpieces. This April 30, 1963 recording is famous for introducing the modern jazz world to four major new players -- trombonist Grachan Moncur III, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Eddie Khan, and then seventeen year old drummer Tony Williams. (Hutch actually recorded earlier but these sessions have only recently emerged -- Al Grey and Dave Burns Sessions, see my review.) The musical explorations captured here are deeply searching, doing the title justice indeed, and the chemistry of the quintet is instantaneous and profound. The tracks are all amazing -- the mesmerizing polarity of "Saturday and Sunday" (an alternate take is also included), the towering, monstrous waltz of "Frankenstein," the playful "Blue Rondo," and the haunting "Ghost Town." Thankfully, this same basic group would go on to cut two more phenomenal sessions, McLean's Destination Out! and Moncur's "Evolution" (see my reviews for both titles), and while those are both classics, they are each just one step behind "One Step Beyond."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An alternative path for 60s jazz, September 14, 2005

By 

Mr. M. W. ARCHER "Huckleberry" (Yorkshire, England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Step Beyond (Audio CD)

By this stage in his prolific recording career McLean had moved decisively away from the changes based hard bop sound of his 50s releases toward a more open / freer / modal approach, but without sacrificing his melodic invention. This release is a totally successful alternative to the freer direction that jazz was moving toward in the 60s with Ornette, Cecil etc. McLean knew that he didn't want to go that far, but also that he had to find his own way to move on. Together with other like minded players - Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson for example - they forged what at the time must have sounded like a compromised version of the "new thing", but today makes you wish that more players had worked in this area which cooly and intelligently adds to the jazz tradition in a very measured way. McLeans's alto sound is sour and fantastic, making him a direct predecessor to Roscoe Mitchell to these ears.